Larry Kart Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 A friend of my son who is the book buyer at 57th St. Books in Hyde Park just told me that today he bought a bunch of Bill Veeck's books from his widow Mary Frances Veeck, and among them was the picture book about old-time baseball that I wrote the text for back in 1975, "That Old Ball Game" (Regnery). Nice feeling to know that Veeck had it. Not a bad book, too -- some great vintage photos, including one of Charles Comiskey (when he was player-manager of the St, Louis Browns) in a uniform that looks like it had been designed by Coco Chanel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted January 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 And I just discovered that there's a copy of it in the library of the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia: http://207.56.175.212/Books_K/That_old_ball_game_rare_photograp.html http://www.kfupm.edu.sa/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 (edited) I have a copy too. Gee, me and Bill. Edited January 29, 2011 by Chuck Nessa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllenLowe Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 (edited) and Eddie Gaedell? Edited January 29, 2011 by AllenLowe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted January 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 I do have a jock strap once owned by Pee Wee Marquette. Never been used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 small potatoes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 I never knew about this book. Where can I download a copy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted January 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 I never knew about this book. Where can I download a copy? Why not try Fresh Sound? Used copies of the book seem to be available here and no doubt elsewhere: http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl&st=sl&qi=bY2mlEBOj0ERxVePNUQIDRAKCio_3826995343_1:13:635&bq=author%3Ddavid%2520r.%2520%28compiled%2520by%2520with%2520text%2520by%2520lawrence%2520kart%29%2520phillips%26title%3Dthat%2520old%2520ball%2520game%2520rare%2520photographs%2520from%2520baseball%27s%2520glorious%2520past Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 Fresh Sound costs. If it's OOP, I want it for free. But seriously, those look like some good prices, I need to get a copy at some point soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 A friend of my son who is the book buyer at 57th St. Books in Hyde Park just told me that today he bought a bunch of Bill Veeck's books from his widow Mary Frances Veeck, and among them was the picture book about old-time baseball that I wrote the text for back in 1975, "That Old Ball Game" (Regnery). Nice feeling to know that Veeck had it. Not a bad book, too -- some great vintage photos, including one of Charles Comiskey (when he was player-manager of the St, Louis Browns) in a uniform that looks like it had been designed by Coco Chanel. Are you a baseball fan, or was the writing part of the book something that an editor asked you to do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted January 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 Are you a baseball fan, or was the writing part of the book something that an editor asked you to do? Both. I had a friend who was an editor at Henry Regnery, and the would-be author was essentially a collector of old photographs. He'd done a previous book for them of photos of the Old West, and I think that also was subject he knew a good deal about, but he didn't know much about baseball. My friend suspected as much from the text he'd handed in but asked me to take a look at it to be sure -- she probably asked whether I thought it could be saved through editing. I told her that what little text was there was so off base that she'd be better off asking someone to do it all over from scratch; and she asked of I would/could do that (honestly, that hadn't been in my mind). Thinking that this might be fun, I asked when she needed it -- she said four weeks! And it would be for a flat fee -- I think $400 -- and I'd get a credit on the cover. So I placed the photos in chronological units, wrote several pages of introductory material for each chapter, and, probably most important, wrote lengthy captions whenever I could. For instance, the author might have a lovely photo of Christy Mathewson, and in his manuscript it would just say "Christy Mathewson," while I'd assemble everything about Mathewson that I thought was interesting and that would fit on that page. I was, of course, relying on secondary sources for most of the information, but I knew where to look and already knew enough about the subject (I'd been a fan since age nine and liked to read about the baseball past) to sift through that material with care and reshape it in a sufficiently personal manner. The book got a lot of reviews -- people like books on baseball -- and in all those reviews IIRC only two mistakes were pointed out. I only remember one of them: I said that the 1906 Cubs held the record for most wins in the regular season -- 106. They did hold that record for many years, but the Indians surpassed it in 1954 with (I think it was) 116 wins. And those were 154-game seasons! Probably my best caption was the page-long one about the famous "Bonehead Merkle" Giants-Cubs game of 1908 -- a thorough and fair-minded account of that incident if I do say so myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllenLowe Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 just read a review which mentioned "Roger Bresnahan" - related to Kevin? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 For the life of me, I couldn't figure out a way to phrase my question correctly. Luckily, Mr. Kart understood my awkward question. Glad I entertained! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 I've just known Larry for 45+ years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted January 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 I've just known Larry for 45+ years. Seems like it was yesterday, too. 5404 N. Kimball, right? Can still see those large speakers on the street side of the living room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 Even earlier on Glenwood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Johnson Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 I fucking love this place. Damn! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brownian Motion Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 Wow, Larry. Regnery's stable of authors includes former Republican Party Chairman Haley Barbour, Ann Coulter, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, columnist Michelle Malkin and Barbara Olson. Next thing you know Berigan will be pestering you for your autograph. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted January 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 Wow, Larry. Regnery's stable of authors includes former Republican Party Chairman Haley Barbour, Ann Coulter, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, columnist Michelle Malkin and Barbara Olson. Next thing you know Berigan will be pestering you for your autograph. Yes -- it was hardcore Right Wing outfit from the first and for many years but was at that time making a transition to a mainstream publishing firm and would eventually drop the Regnery name and become Contemporary Books. I think descendents of the original Henry Regnery later bought the old name from Contemporary and re-started Regnery with its old agenda. Some of those old Regnery titles were scary. Strange little family drama was involved IIRC. A fellow named Harvey Plotnick had married Regnery's daughter, Susie, who probably was his heir and it was Plotnick who took the firm mainstream, over daddy's considerable objections, but Susie sided with her husband. Harvey was mainstream with a vengeance. He once told his staff that the maximum amount of time that could be spent on editing a manuscript was one day. That some vintage Regnery titles were borderline anti-Semitic perhaps lent sauce to the Plotnick-Regnery drama. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Son-of-a-Weizen Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 Wow, Larry. Regnery's stable of authors includes former Republican Party Chairman Haley Barbour, Ann Coulter, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, columnist Michelle Malkin and Barbara Olson. Next thing you know Berigan will be pestering you for your autograph. Some of those old Regnery titles were scary. ....and many weren't. Published in 2003....pre-WikiLeaks days, Joel Mowbray's 'Dangerous Diplomacy: How the State Department Threatens America's Security' sure was right on target. A clueless, out-of-control, intellectually confused, out-of-touch institution (demand that the cables be returned? Return digital cables? Um, well, okay then.) He pretty much called that! ....now, back to baseball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllenLowe Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 this confirms my impression that Larry Kart's identity isn't real, but actually a composite of several early jazz critics with CIA ties. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted January 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 Allen! Do I have to reveal your cover, too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted O'Reilly Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 and Eddie Gaedell? Surely, that's the pocket book edition... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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